Khattak The Tribe of Manasseh

Note: All references from books and texts have been italicized and bulleted.

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Introduction

Khattak or Khatak (Pashto: خټک, Urdu خٹک), is the name of an Afghan tribe belonging to the Karlan branch of the Afghans. The tribe’s history is quite ancient. One of the earliest references about them are found in the 4th century BCE in Median Empire (Media And Arachosia). They were called Sattagudai by Greek and other historians.

[Guardians of the Khaibar Pass: the social organisation and history of the Afridis of Pakistan David M. Hart Page 7]

The tribe’s territory is located in the Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa province of modern day Pakistan. Historical records show an earlier eastward migration from Herat, Ghowr and Ghazni.

The tribe is settled along the western bank of the river Indus from as north upwards as Sammah; modern day Lund Khwar & Sher Garh near Malakand District to South through the district of Karak District, a stretch of territory more than 200 miles long. Their historic capitals are Akora Khattak, a town 50 kilometres (31 miles) east of the provincial capital, Peshawar and Teri, Kohat.

For the most part of their history, the Khattak were united under one combined leader, referred to as Malak, which according to Khushal Khan Khattak is a continuation of the Bani Israel title of Malak (king).

However, the combined title of Malak is not used anymore, solely for the reason that there is no combined Malak of all the Northern and Southern clans.

Origin

According to Nimatullah’s 1620 work ”History of The Afghans”, Khattaks are amongst the oldest of the Afghan tribes.

[Deportation by the Assyrians, Makhzan-i Afghani, page 37]

Their history has been closely knit with that of the Yusufzai Tribe from their first settlement around the mountains of Ghor and Ghazni to present day East-Central and North-Eastern Pukhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan.

[Herodotus, Book 3, 91, The Histories of Herodotus, George Rawlinson, Translation 1858–1860]

(In this and the two succeeding passages the historian is giving a list of the Achaemenian satrapies and their peoples.)

The Sattagudai and the Gandarioi and the Dadikai and the Aparutai, who were all reckoned together paid 170 talents.

Herodotus, without assigning a name to the satrapy, tells us that Darius’ yth Satrapy was inhabited by four tribes, the Sattagudai, the Gandarioi, the Dadikai, and the Aparutai.

The earliest accounts of the Khattak tribe appear in the writings of Herodotus during the Fifth Century BC where he mentions the four ancient nations comprising the Pactyans he encountered in Pactya as the Gandarn, the Aparytae, the Sattagyddae, and the Dadicae. The first having long since been identified with the ancient inhabitants of that part of the Peshawar valley now known as the Yusufzai and Mohmand country. The second and third are identified with the Afridi, and the Khattak of the present day. The last, or Dadicae, are most probably represented by the nearly extinct tribe of the Dadi, who dwell amongst the Kakar, on the southern border of the ancient Sattagyddae country. It is curious to find these very nations now, after a lapse of more than two thousand years, retaining the identical names and the same positions as those assigned to them by the ancient Greeks author.

The first settlement of the Khattaks was at Shawal, a valley in the Waziri country lying to the west of Bannu, near the Pir Ghal peak. They migrated thence eastwards to the British district of Bannu and settled with the Afghan tribes of Honai and Mangal, who then held it. These tribes were driven out by the Shitaks, a clan allied to the Khattaks, also from Shawal, probably during the 14th century.

[Notes on the Tarikh-e-Murassa, Plowden, Maj.]

[Settlement Report of Bannu, Thorburn]

The Shitaks gradually drove back the weak Khattak communities previously settled along the left bank of the Kuram. The Khattaks thus pressed from behind gradually spread over the southern portion of the Kohat district. They first took Possession of the Chauntra Bahadar Khel and Teri valleys, and jointly with the Bangashes drove out the tribes previously occupying the north-eastern part of the district, and obtained the Gumbat, Pattiala and Zira tappas as their share

Bani Israel – The Ten Lost Tribes

Bani Israel (also Bna’i Israel) literally means, the children of Israel and refers to the Assyrian captivity of Israel and the ten lost tribes that settled in Media (and Arachosia) and never repatriated to the Holy Land. Numerous historians have identified these four tribes with four of the Ten Lost Tribes.

Gandarioi

Gandariori (Greek usage) Or the Yusufzai (Pashto usage) have been identified as the Tribe of Joseph (Biblical usage).

Khattak – The Tribe of Manasseh

Khattak origin from the Israelites is documented in numerous accounts and none is more convincing than the views of the Khattak themselves, and of their combined leader (of all Northern and Southern sub clans), Khushal Khan Khattak. In his book Dastar Nama, Khushal writes:

Khushal Khan further contends that Daniyal (Daniel) was from Malak Talut’s (Saul) progeny. Malak Talut (Saul) is from the offsprings of the brother of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham):
“The bravery and valour in the Pukhtuns are the effect of the milk of that lioness.”

This is further supported by the fact that Khushal who himself was elected a Malak of the Khattak tribe considered the word Malak, Bani Israel in origin and delcares it:

“a continuation of the Bani Israel title of Malak (king).”

Historically it is known that the tribal name Khattak came into usage when a leader of the tribe named Luqman was given the alias Khattak and that before this, the tribe was titled by its original name.

[A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province: Based on the census report for the Punjab, 1883, Horace Arthur Rose, Sir Denzil Ibbetson, Sir Edward Maclagan, Printed by the superintendent, Government printing, Punjab, 1914 – Page 248.]

[Report of the regular settlement of the Peshawar district of the Punjab, Edward George G. Hastings, 1878 – Page 80.]

Therefore, the tribal name Khattak replaced an older more ancient tribal name.

It is evident that the Yusufzai, the Afridi and the Jaji (Zazi) still retain their Bani Israel Tribal names, but for the Kattaks, this is derived indirectly from the fact that all of the Ten Lost Tribes can be accounted for in the different Afghan tribes that inhabit this region except Manasseh, since the Khattaks have been mentioned always in history with these three tribes, including by Herodotus.

Always reckoned together apart from all the other neighboring nations and the fact that it was the Tribe of Joseph that gave birth to Ephraim and Manasseh, it is therefore highly probable that the Khattaks are in fact the Tribe of Manasseh.

This is also confirmed by the fact that, wherever in Median Empire|Media and Arachosia (modern day Afghanistan and Pakistan), the Yusufzai have settled, the Khattak have settled beside them (except for a short period in their history when the migrated eastward to their present day abode again besides the Yusufzai in modern day Pakistan. Additionally, a sub tribe within the Khattak, called the Yusufzai-Khattaks (Lund Khwar, Jamal Garhi of District Mardan) are a union between the two tribes and thus share their heritage.

Additionally, The Khattak and the Afridi are grouped together in the Karalni Afghan tribes as being from the same origin.

[Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North West Frontier Province By H.A. Rose, IBBETSON, Maclagan, 1996 – 2076 pages – Page 477. ]

They are always mentioned together and as being from the same origin.

[Pathans: compiled under the order of the Government of India at the Recruiting Office, Peshawar, Richard Thomas Incledon Ridgway, Manager of Publications, 1938 – Page 4. ]

The Tribe of Joseph also gave rise to the Tribe of Ephraim and the Tribe of Manasseh. Thus, since the Tribe of Ephraim and the Tribe of Manasseh have the same origin from the Tribe of Joseph thus too the Afridi and the Khattak have the same common origin.

Though, an Indian group, the Bnai Manasseh claim to be from The Tribe of Manasseh and ancient migrations may very well support this, however the tribal population sizes:

[http://www.asianews.it/index.php?art4148&len INDIA Indian converts to Judaism: lost tribes of Israel or economic migrants? – Asia News]

requires that the Tribe of Manasseh be proportionate to that of the Afridis (Tribe of Ephraim), and the only group fulfilling this is the Khattak. Population of the Afridi and the Khattak are more or less the same size.

We know that both the Afridi and the Khattak lived in the same geographical area at the beginning of the Muhammaden era.

Gad, the word meaning to separate out or to “stand out”. The Modern day word Khattak the morphed form of the original however means a small hill that “stands out”.

[http://www.Khyber.org]

The Tribe of Gad is among theTen Lost Tribes that was taken by Assyrians and settled in the mountains of Ghor and Ghazni.

[(page 37 The History of the Afghans by Burnhard Dorn)http://www.wdl.org/en/item/3034/?qleng&igcu&view_typegallery]

Gad (Hebrew; to stand out, also Luck and Soldier) > Gadak (of Gad) also Satta+Gaddayee or Sattagudai (Herodotus) > Khadak (Kha in the old dialect of Pukhto (not Pushto) for the G of Hebrew) > Khattak (a hill that stands out).

This is also strongly echoed and verified in the words of Herodotus during the 5th century BC by the fact that of the Nations he mentions were “the Sattagyddae”, the Gaddae being the morphed form of the original Gad.

Let us now refer to the third passage cited, in which Herodotus, without assigning a name to the satrapy, tells us that Darius’ yth
Satrapy was inhabited by four tribes, the Sattagudai, the Gandarioi, the Dadikai, and the Aparutai.

Bellew has gone further and identified the Sattagudai with the famous Khatak tribe, and the Dadikai with an obscure branch of Kakars whom he calls Dadi.”

Migration

Khattak origins are first noted in the mountains of Ghazni & Ghowr where they arrived from Herat. Over the following centuries they gradually migrated eastward to modern day Pakistan and Eastern Afganistan. In their migration they founded new cities and towns and established for themselves a wide stretch of territory. Some of the cities they founded or passed through have Bani Israelite names. These include:

Zhob

Tirah

Kerak

Dasht e Yahoodi and Qilla Yahoodi

Ghowr.

Conclusion

Some of the Afghan tribes are therefore the Ten Lost Tribes, these include:

Yusufzai – Tribe of Joseph

Afridi – Tribe of Ephraim

Zazai – Tribe of Gad OR

Gadoon – Tribe of Gad

Khattak – Tribe of Manasseh

Rabbani – Tribe of Reuben

Levani – Tribe of Levi

Ashuri – Tribe of Asher

Shinwari – Tribe of Simeon

Therefore for the question “Are Khattaks (or the Khattak) Jewish?” e.g. , the answer is, as far as the Khattaks are concerned, it is obvious they are as much Bani Israel or Jewish as the Yusufzai and the Afridis. However, they like all Afghans are NOT Jews. They are Jeiwsh.

There is a difference and it is substantial whether considered from an Afghan or from the Jewish perspective.

All these Afghans do accept and realize their Bani Israelite origins from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel but they are staunch Muslims and have no intention whatsoever to leave Islam or migrate to the Holy Land.

Thank you.
I have read some material from it and maybe mentioned it here in a reference as well.
However, that theory is not a mainstream theory but rather a rarity, an outlier. For example, it is not supported by Western Historians, Arabic/Persian/Indian historians, Muslim scholars etc. and so on. As an alternate theory it can be mentioned but I would like to use more referenced material from well documented books printed by well known publishers. Alternatively a local Afghan source though rare is worthy of mention but the writer is not an Afghan.

also read barnabas bible, there are talk that prophet isa alaihissalam (the god messenger only for bani israil) also doing dakwah in india beside dakwah around jarussalem, that indicate the area between india and pakistan was bani israil tribe, so he do some dakwah for bani israil outer yerussalem area. just my suggestion, seek the lost tribe around indonesia, this place also called “future the promise land” for bani israil in last time, and sometime called “eastern golden gate jerussalem”.thanks